Prime Minister François Bayrou during the presentation of the main measures of the 2026 budget, in Paris, on July 15, 2025. JULIEN MUGUET FOR LE MONDE
Prime Minister François Bayrou wanted to make his stance clear: Right now, all of France's political "leaders are heading off on well-deserved vacations, something I won't be doing," he said in a video entitled "FB Direct – Épisode 1," published on YouTube on Tuesday, August 5. For the summer parliamentary recess, Bayrou assigned himself a new role: that of communicator-in-chief, tasked with defending to the public the much-criticized 2026 budget guidelines, which he disclosed on July 15, aiming to achieve €44 billion in budget cuts.
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The prime minister's "direct communication" operation was finalized three weeks ago, following the mid-July press conference in which he revealed the government's budget plans. In Tuesday's video, Bayrou continued to amplify the urgency of the threat posed by "overindebtedness," calling it "an evil that threatens [our] survival" and warning that major "sacrifices" would be inevitable if nothing was done to stem it.
